Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Irises

Kansas Dad says the blog's been too quiet this week. We've been very busy lately, out and about with friends, lazing around in the yard for hours on end and all the other usual fare. I've been too tired in the evenings to post much, though, especially pictures. Don't worry, I'll get over it once baby arrives! (Three months isn't so long, is it?)

Here are a few of our irises, just to give you something to see.

The first iris appeared on April 20th. I sent Kansas Dad out in the mist the next day to take a picture.


The yellow irises (oh, how I love yellow flowers!) starting blooming on April 30th.


Since then, we've had new irises blooming nearly every day. I went out yesterday and took pictures of all of them, most of which are shown here.


As you can see, we have a lot of irises, all inherited from previous owners. They are quite possibly the loveliest part of the Range.


The ones above are the only ones we bought. We had planted them at the old house and brought them along even though we didn't know how well they'd survive. I don't remember them blooming last year, but they've done very well this year.

The patch below holds the ones Kansas Dad transplanted last year. We really need to transplant all of them, but it's a bit time-consuming. (And there are so many!) I was afraid they wouldn't bloom, but we see more and more every day.


(In fact, we had a new one come in today in this patch - a bi-color with pink and purple, very pretty!) The last picture shows the first of the set I missed last year while I was traveling. Such a brilliant color!


There are probably at least four or five other patches, some of which are so crowded they haven't sent up any stems at all. We'll be working to transplant some of the irises in the heat of the summer (working around baby's birth, of course). If you're in the area and would like some, let us know. We'd gladly trade some rhizomes for help with the transplanting. I doubt we'll get to all the patches this year, so there will be more the year after and the year after that and the...you get the picture.